


Die Cast Hearts

by allthesilentwatchers (j_knight13), j_knight13



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Angst Glorious Angst, Female Tony Stark, I Don't Even Know, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I can’t remember all the characters, I have made that into a tag, I'm Bad At Tagging, Marvel Fix-It, Natasha And Toni have a bromance, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Not Cap Friendly, Not Steve Friendly, Shuri is our Queen, Sort Of, Steeeeve, Stephen Strange is a Good Bro, Team Cap has a chance at redemption tho, Team Iron Man, Thaddeus Ross - Freeform, and Rules, because screw cannon, is a bich king, peter parker and shuri friendship, sorry cap, what happens when Chess is bored
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-14 22:49:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16921905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/j_knight13/pseuds/allthesilentwatchers, https://archiveofourown.org/users/j_knight13/pseuds/j_knight13
Summary: Antonia Stark has a heart. A heart that is iron, is as brilliant as a star, and a heart that is flesh and blood and damaged. One is strong, one is weak. One does not feel, one feels too much. In the end, when all the damage is done and trust is broken, both may as well be die cast. They can pretend to be real, but in the end it’s just a model of the real thing.





	1. So A Heart May Break

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is purely for me. I’ll probably update once in a blue moon, and yeah. Come shout at me in the comments.  
> Chapters will get longer- this first one is an intro.
> 
> PS; Flames will be responded to with flames. xoxo
> 
> Link to the cover art on deviantArt:  
> https://www.deviantart.com/mirkwoodcheshire/art/Die-Cast-Hearts-776007717?ga_submit_new=10%3A1544368258

Toni Stark is found by her greatest creation.  
She’s lying, broken and fading with her heart crushed in and her father’s greatest creation walking away, and there’s another of his greatest creations, the shield that did nothing to shield her, ironic isn’t it?   
Vision finds her with one broken heart and another heart that has stopped caring.   
He finds her, eyes fluttering closed beneath long lashes with each breath that rattles out past coral lips, mesmerising chocolate colour shot through with hints of gold and hazel, tanned skin of her face frighteningly pale, nestled among a nest of rich brown curls, as snow eddies through the concrete columns and settles on the gold and crimson of the suit.  
Toni Stark wakes up with iron in her blood.   
Of course she does, of course there’s iron in her blood, but there’s a lot more of it now. And technically it’s not iron- technically it’s a gold titanium alloy.  
Toni Stark wakes up with the Extremist in her veins, and when she wakes up screaming, seeing her ghosts, hunting for her. Her hearts are beating fast, so fast, and the Extemis flows from the hollows of her bones and the depths of her veins and arteries, gives her strength. The doctors can do nothing, the nurses, the orderlies- but then Rhodey appears in his wheelchair, and Vision, her two best boys, and Toni can breath.

It takes... a long time, before she goes home. Home isn’t the tower anymore, either. Home becomes a house Pepper has purchased in Canada, an expansive property that has a massive, beautiful eco friendly home built in the centre.   
At least, if someone asked, that’s where she’d say home is. In reality, home becomes a total of six people:   
Vision, her greatest creation, her son, her boy. Toni loves him with the ferocity of a lioness, and Vision’s affection to her is no small amount. She’s proud of him, so proud, of JARVIS who has become Vision and Vision who has found himself, found her and kept her afloat in a sea of darkness.  
James Rhodes, Toni’s Rhodeybear, her best friend since she was a young upstart in college with a big mouth and a bigger ego, the only one willing to take this little firebrand and not try to mould her to expectations, no, he encouraged her flame. War Machine to her Iron Empress, Pumbaa to her Timon, Doctor to her TARDIS, partners in crime and mischief and everything else.  
Virginia Potts, Pepper, her ‘girlfriend’, her sister in all but blood, the one who kept her alive in years past and will in years to come, the one who she owes a thousand debts. Toni knows, she knows what Pepper has done for her, and Pepper loves her all the same, for all her faults and failures. Yes, this woman is her sister, her friend, her saviour, the one who keeps her life running.  
Happy Hogan, her protector, her friend, not a father figure but perhaps an uncle or a cousin, Toni’s sister’s boyfriend and soon to be husband if Toni has anything to say about it, which of course she does. She takes so much glee in hinting obviously and not so obviously, to Pepper and Happy and anyone else who listens, which is a lot of people, whether they like it or not.  
Peter Parker, her Spider-kid, and if Toni ever had a child she wouldn’t bother, she’d adopt Peter instead, the precious child with a brilliant mind and an adorably awkward way of viewing her- as a mother figure, or perhaps an older sister or an aunt.  
And lastly, Doctor Stephen Strange. He’s her Sherlock, and she’s his Sherlock, because no surprise guess how they met? no shit Sherlock, in unison, across a classroom in MIT to an idiot they’ll never remember but are so grateful to. If Pepper is her sister and Rhodey is her best friend then Stephen is her brother, sarcasm and fierce intelligence and determination bound into a single package, and they’ve evolved from a renowned narcissistic neurosurgeon and a billionaire playgirl genius philanthropist to Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Surpreme and Toni Stark, Iron Empress, together.  
Those are the six people that Toni calls home (there’s another, in her heart of hearts, one who saved her life and so many others, one who helped create the Iron Empress and died so she could live, but that’s the only place he is). 

So, her home is complicated, and more often than not on various opposite corners of the country, what with her various occupations, Stephen’s jobs and Pepper and Happy’s travelling, both for the company and themselves. Rhodey and Vision are with her a fair deal, and she sees Peter several times every week, at least. But they’re hers, hers to protect, and she’ll be damned if Rogers can take that from her


	2. How Fine You Look When Dressed In Rage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They have made her broken, but that simply gives her more edges to cut them on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, another short chapter, because a) I liked it ended where it is, and b) I couldn’t be fucked adding any more.

Spending a night in a bunker of stone and blanketed by ice forces you to think, Toni finds, as she drifts in and out of consciousness.

She thinks back on her life- Afghanistan, Iron Empress, the Avengers, her lives and loves and laughs, and her tears.

Then Vision finds her, and she’s dying, she’s gone, but he brings the Extremis- their last resort, their backup plan- and she lives. She’ll live, she swears, to see all who’ve wronged her burn- but no, that’s old, she decides. That’s overused, that’s unoriginal, and Toni Stark is many things but unoriginal is not one if them.

Words cut, this much she knows. And she has mastered the art of language.

_She_ _will_ _shred_ _them_ _apart_ _on_ _every_ _broken_ _edge_ _they’ve_ _made_ , _tear_ _them_ _to_ _fucking_ _pieces_ _on_ _this_ _fractured_ _masterpiece_ _they’ve_ _turned_ _her_ _to_.

 

When she slips the hospital, she locks herself in her workshop and builds.

She makes something- she makes several somethings.

Another armour, to start- if it could be called that.

Extremis is unique, and can’t be replicated, but the idea can. Nanotech, mental frequency and connection, and a strong mind- she builds her Rhodey his freedom from _fire_ _and_ _blood_. She is the dragon, and she will burn the world with her family on her back.

 

It’s days, or maybe weeks, when she emerges again, and the relief on the faces of her family is almost painful.

They’ve always looked at her like that, she realises- that love, that concern, sympathy but no pity. She was just never looking at them.

She was looking at someone she can’t bring herself to care about anymore, not at all.

She gives Rhodey that freedom- he walks, he walks again, and Toni doesn’t bother to hide the emotion on her face.

When Toni comes out of her room two days later she’s dressed in her finest armour, and it’s not iron- or a titanium-gold alloy, for that matter.

 

Stephen quotes the Cheshire Cat.

 

“How fine you look when dressed in rage,” he says softly, and Toni stares him in the eyes. “Your enemies are fortunate your condition is not permanent. You’re lucky, too. Red eyes suit so few.”

“Cheshire, Alice: Madness Returns,” she shoots back, and winces. “Christ. I think the only reason I know that is because of the kid.”

“He’s been hanging around, looking for you,” Pepper says, and her words are weighted with meaning. Toni gives Stephen a similar look and holds out her hand.

‘ _I_ _don’t_ _like_ _being_ _handed_ _things_.’

‘ _My_ \- _my_ _hands_...’

He takes it.

“I’ll call him now,” she says, and Stephen knows she only pretends not to see Pepper’s smile, and he gently squeezes her hand, both of them ignoring the tremors.

“Come on then, Sherlock,” he tells her. She smiles, hesitantly, genuinely.

“I’m coming, Sherlock.”

 

The kid literally bounces off the walls when he arrives. After that, he hugs her tightly, and she freezes, something like shock on her face, before she smiles and returns the embrace gently.

“I’ve missed you, Miss Stark,” he says, voice muffled by her oversized AC/DC t-shirt. He’s nearly taller than her, and she rests her head in his shoulder.

“I’ve missed you too, Pete,” she murmurs. Then she pulls back and stares at two of her boys with something like love in her eyes.

“Vision’s coming by soon, and Happy and Rhodey are upstairs with Pep,” she tells them. “So’s Christine Everhart, the reporter. We’re going to go out, and we’re going to indulge in shitty greasy food and buy gimmicky sunglasses from tourists shops and then I’m going to answer some questions.” She takes a deep breath. “Schedule some conferences, get ready to face the music.”

“But first, shitty greasy food and gimmicky sunglasses,” Peter says, failing at keeping a serious face. He can’t keep still. Toni grins and ruffles his hair.

“Yes, that. Hey, how about you call your little friends? Whatsisface, Ted and the scary one- Michelle.”

“Ned and MJ,” Peter corrects automatically, before his face lights up again. “Oh, wow! You’re sure?”

Toni waves him off, laughing. “Positive, kid. Now go on. Shoo, scat!” She flaps her hands at him and he vanishes out the door, grin wide and eyes bright with more than just the normal happiness.

 

“You’re sure?”

Stephen asks it again after Peter’s gone. Toni doesn’t need clarification as to what he’s talking about.

“I’m sure,” she says simply, then smirks at him. She’s broken, but that just gives her more edges than before, he thinks. And anyone who stands in her way... they won’t know what hit them


End file.
